The series of Harvard-Yale football games, though perhaps not the most thrilling participated in by Harvard teams of the last 50 years, is of continued interest because of the sustained and uninterrupted enthusiasm it has engendered and preserved in the vast undergraduate and graduate Harvard body. For 46 years the Crimson and the Blue have met on the gridiron; for 46 years have both teams been supported by thousands of Harvard and Yale adherents.
The history of the Harvard-Yale football series is one of the rise and fall of two great waves of victory, interrupted with only an occasional break. For 32 years, from 1876 to 1908, Yale rode the triumphant crest, driving all, Harvard teams before her at will. Only three victories were snatched by Crimson elevens during these years, one in 1890, one in 1898, and one in 1901.
Haughton Becomes Coach
In 1908 P.D. Haughton '99, a former Harvard captain, took charge of Harvard football destinies as coach, and it was this year that ushered in a new football era. A defeat came the next year., and two scoreless ties followed before the great Haughton system got fairly started on its conquering march that lasted with one halt to 1923.
The first Harvard-Yale tilt was played on November 13, 1875, 58 years after "The Battle of the Delta", the first instance of football or anything skin to it ever played by undergraduates in the University. This first meeting of the two universities, which were to form an alliance of friendly rivalry for so many years, was held at New Haven. The game was played under Rugby rules with a Rugby ball. Owing to the comparative newness of the Elis, the Crimson players completely out-passed their opponents, winning by our field goals and four touchdowns to nothing. In these days before the adoption of numerical scoring, four touchdowns counted as one goal, which accounts for the Yale victory in 1876. The Yale men wore dark trousers, blue shirts, and wellow caps. Harvard the usual Crimson shirts and stockings with knee breeches. W.A. Whiting '77, captain of the Harvard fifteen--there were fifteen on each side--unable to play because of an injury, acted as umpire for Harvard.
History Before First Yale Game
Previous to this first Yale encounter football at Harvard had already experienced one rise and fall. The Freshman-Sophomore struggles, developing from the first "Battle of the Delta", continued through the 1804's and the next decade of the '50's, growing tougher as the years progressed, until the first Monday of the fall term became literally a "Bloody Monday," although the day may not have been so named until much later. And so, on July 2, 1860, the sport was quietly and peacefully slain by the Faculty of the College.
When College took up again that year the Sophomores were not satisfied until appropriate funeral services had been made for the deceased game. So in obedient resignation to the decree of the Faculty but in defiance of the enemies of Harvard's institutions the Sophomores appropriately garbed, held an imposing funeral procession and services. A coffin was provided, a foot-fall placed within it, and a grave was dug, while all had an opportunity to look for the last time on the face of their "dear departed friend" and hero of many battle. Then "Football Fight, um," symbolizing the game, was buried in the Delta amid the wails and lamentation of the mourners. When the grave was filled gravestones of black board were placed at the head and foot with the following epitaph:
(Headstone)
Hick Jacet
FOOTBALL FIGHTUM
AET. LX YRS.
Obit, July 2, 1860
RESURGAT.
(Footstone)
FOOTBALL, 1860
In Memoriam
(Over a winged skull)
The game was revived in 1871, when students engaged in their contests outside the Yard, on the Cambridge Common. The resurrected football was for the first time governed by rules, tripping, striking, hacking, lurking or butting thereafter prohibited. The players were driven off the Common by an order of the City Fathers on petition of a few unsympathetic citizens of Cambridge, in May, 1873, at which time the game was transferred to Holmes Field, a rough, uneven place, at that time unused for anything. Goal posts were ereected at a cost of $2.50.
The season of 1874 was destined to leave a deep impression upon American football, for during this year occurred the first Harvard-McGill game, the first contest of intercollegiate Rugby played in this country and the contest which led directly to the present intercollegiate game. The teams met on Jarvis Field, May 14, eleven men participating on each side. Following this year, often termed the most "momentous" of football history, Harvard met on the playing field with McGill and other Canadian universities for a number of years, previous to the first engagement with Yale at the beginning of the last quarter of the century.
Football Togs of 1881
The accoutrement for the Crimson team of 1881 consisted of high baseball shoes with leather strips on the soles, crimson stockings and jerseys, with a white canvas jacket over the jersey, and knee breeches that once had been white. There were no pads or head gears or similar protection, for mass play had not been invented. A few of the Harvard men went bareheaded while others wore crimson football caps of soft wool without visors; the Yale team wore long blue caps knit like a stocking with a blue tassel.
Though a blasting wind swept across the field and the men were drenched to the skin after the first 45 minutes of play--there being two halfs of 45 minutes each--the men simply wandered about the field during intermission. There were no rubdowns, there was no hot broth: for no quarters or dressing rooms were then in use. Until 1881 there was no medical supervisor nor any physical trainer. That year also witnessed the coming to Harvard of its first football coach, yet systematic coaching was not instituted until Captain W.A. Brooks '87 appointed F.A. Mason '84 coach.
The '80's having brought in many features which contributed to the game as it is now played, it remained for the '90's not only to advance its organization still further, but to preserve football itself through a series of struggles for existence which had their inception about 1891 and ended just before the World War. It was in 1890 that Harvard had its first medical care of football players. Dr. W.M. Conant '79, a former player, was made by the captain, alsolute lord of the physical side of that year's eleven. In 1893 was begun the quarterback kick, the precursor of the onside kicking game. Likewise during this decade came the innovation of the first tackling dummy ever used at Cambridge. This was a crude and fearful engine, a cylinder of about five feet in height and 18 inches in diameter, covered with leather with very little padding under it, and weighing approximately 100 pounds. A shelf projecting some six or eight inches from the circumference encircled the dummy about three feet from the bottom and was for the purpose of compelling the men to get their heads down under it when tackling. This device was hung vertically by a rope in the gymnasium and while it undoubtedly taught the men to tackle low and was the embroyo of a contrivance since developed into universal usage, it was so heavy and so hard that a good many men came away from the dummy drills injured, some suffering even broken collar bones.
One of the high spots which led to football chaos and the crisis of its existence during the closing years of the century was the "Flying Wedge" of 1892, the harbinger of a long line of momentum-mass plays ultimately to be legislated illegal. Following this for a number of years, the coaching brains of the country were concentrated in conceiving momentum and mass plays in which bulk and power were to accomplish what skill and artistry were to do in years to come. In 1893 the Crimson cohorts surprised the football world by taking the field in leather breeches. In 1894 all home football activities were transferred from Jarvis to Soldiers Field. This decade also gave to Harvard the world's greatest punter and Harvard's great coach, Percy D. Haughton '99, the world's second best quarterback of all time according to Walter Camp, Charlie Daly '01, and Marshall Newell '94, one of the few starts of football history who have detested the game.
Harvard Snatches 22 to 0 Win
With the turn of the century came hope that the Yale series of victories was at an end, for a decisive 22 to 0 Harvard win in 1901 was made by an aggregation strong in every department of the game. Only once between then and 1913, however, were the Blue cohorts again halted, in 1908, when Harvard just succeeded in eking out a 4 to 0 victory. This win came at the beginning of Haughton's coaching regime, and by one move of his during the tilt, he stamped himself as a great coach. The game had been going in Harvard's favor until toward the end of the first half when E.F. Ver Wiebe '09, started a march for Harvard which seemed destined to go through for a touchdown. To the amazement of every one on the Harvard side Ver Wiebe was withdrawn when the ball reached Yale's 20 yard line and V.P. Kennard '09 was sent in to kick a goal from the field from a somewhat difficult angle.
Under the rules existant at that time players and coaches were permitted to walk along the side lines. Haughton had given Kennard a warning signal and Kennard moved along the side lines, always keeping the Harvard center in a direct line between him- self and the center of the Yale goal.
When Ver Wiebe was withdrawn, Kennard walked on the field along that line and, when at the right distance made the signal to the Harvard center to snap the ball, the ball was passed and the goal kicked before the Yale players, and almost before the Harvard men grasped the true significance of the situation. Kennard's success crowned perhaps the most persistent training on one feature of the game ever gone through by an individual, for he had practiced drop-kicking for months until he had the trick worked into a fine art.
The Tide Turns
And then, as the Haughton coaching system whipped into shape, came the turn of the tide; Harvard began a new football era. The superb running of H.R. Hardwick '15, and the kicking of C.E. Brickley '15, reputed to be the best dropkicker of all times, together with the running of E.W. Mahan '16 in his football debut at Harvard, brought victories over Yale to the tune of 20 to 0 in 1912 and 15 to 5 in 1913.
The game in 1914 was the first Harvard-Yale game in the Yale Bowl, and the Crimson eleven came off with the honors, 36 to 0. Late in this tilt, it is stated, the onlookers were treated to the greatest exhibition of generalship ever seen on a football field. It was Harvard's ball within drop-kicking distance and Captain C.E. Brickley '15, injured and on the bench, was sent into the fray apparently to try for a goal from the field and the satisfaction of scoring against Yale in the year of his captaincy. Using Brickley as a decoy, far out of the way of harm, Watson '16, at quarter, proceeded to score a touchdown by a seres of five plays, ending in a forward pass to Hardwick. Brickley had the satisfaction of kicking the goal after touchdown.
The 1915 game is memorable for several reasons: in this contest was scored by Harvard its first touchdown against Yale in the Stadium; in this contest was tallied the largest score Harvard ever made against Yale; in this contest was established perhaps the highest individual score for one game ever made on an Eastern gridiron, captain E.W. Mahan '16 checking off unaided, 29 of Harvard's 41 points.
And then in 1916 Harvard suffered its first defeat at the hands of the Blue since 1909. The score was 6 to 3. Harvard took the lead early in the game with a goal from the field. With the second period well under way Yale had the ball when one of the Blue backs fumbled in going through the line. It just eluded some of the Harvard backs, was recovered by Yale on the Crimson's 13 yard line, and then the Blue was just able to get across the goal for a touchdown. This was Houghton's farewell game as coach.
Following a two year respite from football during the World War it took hard drilling to whip a team into shape for the 1919 season. But it was done, and the team, composed mostly of returned soldiers, came out of the Yale game 10 to 3 victor.
Then began the building up of a forward passing attack which was to make the Crimson elevens of the next few years formidable opposition for any team.
West Coast Trip Planned
Immediately after the Yale game plans were laid for a game on the West Coast for January 1, 1920, and on December 1 a reconditioning of the squad set in. The tilt at Pasadena with Oregon brought all there was of stamina and perseverance in the Harvard men, much effected by the heat. After a hard fought and very closely contested game, in which Harvard's shining light proved to be her later coach. Arnold Horween '20, the Crimson jerseyed fighters left the field 7 to 6 victors.
It is thought that the Yale game of 1921 was taken by the Crimson on a clever piece of strategy. On the team of that year were two distinct types of quarterbacks, C.C. Buell '23 and J.J. Fitzgerald '21. Under the former the Crimson contingent worked smoothly in rushing the ball. This fact had been so evident during the year, especially after the Princeton game, that it was feared that if it were known that Buell was to start the game. Yale would be primed and ready for a forward passing attack. Hence no announcement as to who would start at quarterback was made.
Buell Goes In
Fitzgerald had started practically all of the preliminary games for Harvard, and when it was time to open up Buell was sent in, but against Yale it was decided to reverse the tactics and start with the passing game, hoping to take Yale unawares. Fitzgerald even took the team on the field for signal work just before the game, but when the whistle blew, Buell was seen in the quarterback position.
Buell carried the forward passing game to the limit, and for the first time in the history of Harvard football, the forward pass was used as an offensive weapon deep in Harvard's own territory.
Bulldog Tumbled
The following season an underdog Crimson outfit tackled a powerful and masterful Eli eleven, and through the combined efforts and persevering spirit of the entire team and the running and plunging of Buell and George Owen '23, the Bulldog bowed, the final score leaving Harvard at the top end 10 to 3.
Then followed two consecutive victories for the Eli, but the 1924 tilt, though taken finally by the Blue is remembered chiefly by Harvard adherents by the strategical coup carried through by the Harvard coaching corps. It was this year that E.L. Gehrke '24, a player who had proved himself in previous years a formidable opponent to the Blue, had been for some time reported unable to play in the final clash with Yale.
The New Haven contingent boasted a strong outfit, and with Gehrke out of the Harvard lineup, little favor was bestowed on the University eleven. Gehrke was carried onto the field on a stretcher, from all appearances to witness the game. Momentary attention was focused on him and then all eyes were turned to the start of play at the kickoff. Four or five minutes after the first whistle Harvard made a substitution, and to the amazement of all, the substitute was Gehrke himself. The team pulled together and for a wild first half swept the much more powerful Eli outfit off its feet, the half ending 6 to 0. In the second half Yale showed its strength and took the game 19 to 6.
Then came the next season the great moral victory of the Crimson team. With M.A. Cheek '26 playing stellar football an underdog Harvard eleven held the Blue cohorts to a 0 to 0 tie, in weather the most unfavorable. The 1926 fray in the Bowl is remembered by undergraduates for the Harvard touchdown brought about by a pass, Henry Chauncey '27 to W.G. Saltonstall '28, which gave the Crimson rooters a moment of hope. The game ended, however, with Yale in the lead, 12 to 7. Last year's tilt in the Stadium brought out the steady power the Blue held over the Crimson and the Elis again returned to New Haven with a victory over Harvard. The score was 14 to 0.
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